BY CINDY SCHROEDER and EARNEST WINSTON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
FORT WRIGHT -- City Administrator Marc Bergman has resigned, less than a month after the police chief was suspended and the mayor resigned.
City council members learned of Mr. Bergman's resignation at their meeting Wednesday. The resignation is effective Sept. 1. He will remain with the city as a consultant until then.
Mr. Bergman, who said he does not have another job lined up, said he worked out a severance agreement with Mayor Paul Hiltz on Tuesday, after
submitting his resignation. Mr. Bergman, made about $51,000 a year but will now earn about $55,000 as a consultant, due to raises all Fort Wright employees received Wednesday.
Mr. Hiltz was appointed mayor of this city of 6,667 on June 23, after five-year Mayor Cindy Pinto resigned.
"It's been a rough year for me. It's more due to personal circumstances than anything else," Mr. Bergman said of his resignation. "I thought the timing was right, and Paul and I were able to work out an equitable arrangement in terms of my severance." Mayor Hiltz said it was with regret that he accepted Mr. Bergman's resignation. "During the four years Marc has been here, he has championed many causes on behalf of the citizens of the city, and we have seen much success due to his work. He has set a standard for future administrators in Fort Wright and Northern Kentucky." Mr. Bergman said that when he accepted the Fort Wright administrator's job about four years ago, it was with the understanding that he would work with Mrs. Pinto.
Mrs. Pinto, who earlier acknowledged having "a very close working relationship" with both Mr. Bergman and Police Chief Mark Brown, resigned June 15, five days before she was to have presided over a disciplinary hearing for Chief Brown.
The chief has been suspended without pay since June 11, when Mr. Bergman filed administrative charges against him, and recommended that Mrs. Pinto fire him. The chief faces charges of inefficiency, abusive or obscene language, immoral or improper conduct and discourtesy to the public or fellow employees.
"I'm leaving for a number of reasons, none of which are related to Mark Brown," Mr. Bergman said Wednesday. "My contract with the city expired today, and I came here with the understanding that I was going to work with (former Mayor) Cindy (Pinto). She and I had an agreement as to how we were going to operate, not that Paul and I couldn't (reach such an agreement)."
Mr. Bergman, who was named Northern Kentucky city administrator of the year in 1996, was hired by Fort Wright, after serving as Woodlawn, Ohio's village administrator from 1989-91. He graduated with a master's degree from the University of Cincinnati's school of public administration.
Mr. Bergman is chairman of the Northern Kentucky Telecommunications Authority, a group that is moving forward with plans for a fiber-optic telecommunications network that would be owned by a group of Northern Kentucky cities, and built and operated by the private sector. "I'm sad to be leaving Fort Wright. Fort Wright has some tremendous challenges in the years ahead. I hope that the community and its elected representatives recognizes these challenges and is able to solve them for the benefit of all who live and work here," Mr. Bergman said at Wednesday's city council meeting.
